Pastor Jack Graham walks into the empty worship center at Prestonwood Baptist Church and looks around: What was once a cow pasture now resembles a grand performance hall. Bright theater lights shine down on him, and pews seem to extend endlessly toward the lofty ceiling.

Graham hovers near the entrance, taking it all in. He wears a dark suit and tie after leading a funeral earlier that day. He has a weekend of regular services ahead of him. Back in his office, the Rangers game is being recorded so he doesn’t miss a pitch. But here, in this empty hall, is the heart of Graham’s life and ministry: It’s where up to 7,500 believers gather to worship each Sunday.

This weekend, Graham celebrates his 25th anniversary as pastor of one of the nation’s largest and most successful Baptist churches. To mark the occasion, all three branches of his 37,000-member congregation will come together to worship for the first time. His staff also has plans to dedicate a water well in Uganda in Graham’s honor.

"My emotions this weekend with the anniversary are just pure thanksgiving," the pastor said. "Pure gratitude."

Prestonwood Baptist Church’s membership and presence in North Texas sky-rocketed after Graham took over in 1989. The church had 8,000 members then, and has since grown to fill massive churches in Plano, Dallas and Prosper. The main location, off West Park Boulevard in Plano, spans 140-acres and includes everything from a school to a football field.

In a sector of Christianity that emphasizes baptisms and spreading the Gospel, Graham has found success even as overall baptisms among Southern Baptists declined over the past decade. Graham attributed that to his church’s strict focus on reaching out to meet people where they are, whether that’s on Twitter (he has more than 25,000 followers) or on the football field.

"We just keep a lot of hooks in the water,” he said.

Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, said Graham won’t see a downturn in baptisms like other churches because he has taught his congregation to be externally-focused.

"The only reason we have a downturn in baptisms is because our churches became internalized and ... stopped reaching out to people,” Patterson said. “Jack never did that.”

Prestonwood’s growth has mirrored how Graham described his own personality: “Onward and upward. Forward -- and probably forward and fast.”

Graham sets the pace for the church, expanding the its foreign language programs and continuing to minister through a recovery from prostate cancer. He regularly preaches abroad, from China to Romania. In 2011, he was invited to Washington, D.C. to lead the opening prayer for the U.S. House of Representatives.

Over the years, however, he said he’s learned to savor the small, individual moments that make up a life and career. “I would advise a younger Jack Graham to slow down a little bit and enjoy the victories along the way,” he said.

With such a large congregation, Graham said he has also learned the importance of staying accessible. Folks can call him by his first name, if they choose, and he said he’s in charge of posting his own Tweets.

Still, even the most faithful of his congregation may not know everything about him. That he plays the drums, or that he played second-base during college ball, for example. Or that for a pastor, he has a competitive spirit that comes alive on the golf course and among friends. He once created baseball cards from a fellow pastor’s teen rollerskating championship days and distributed them at the Southern Baptist Convention, Patterson said.

"Everything is a game,” his wife, Deb, said. "The overwhelming thing in his life is you do everything to excellence, and the excellence with the glory of God."

Patterson said the combination of Graham’s lightheartedness and his strong convictions makes him a great pastor.

He recalled a time when Graham had his congregation put crosses in the lawn in remembrance of aborted babies, a move that drew loud opposition from pro-choice groups. But he said when Graham responded respectfully without backing down, the opposition faded. The lesson, Patterson said, is to learn “to be strong sweetly.”

“My wish for Southern Baptists is that somehow God would raise up about 40 clones of Jack Graham for us,” Patterson said.

Graham, who turns 64 this month, said wants to stay focused on his mission as he gets older and keep preaching as long as he’s able.

“Games are won and lost typically in the later innings or in the fourth quarter,” he said. “I want to finish well and be remembered as a person who was faithful to the calling that God gave me."

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